Thursday, 18 June 2015

James Agalloco has written a go0d article for Pharmaceutical Technology, looking into the implications of the Human Microbiome Project findings for pharmaceutical quality control microbiology.

Here is an extract:

"Some readers will be familiar with the staggering bacterial numbers reported by the various HMP studies that have appeared. With the identification of more than 10,000 bacterial species in the human microbiome so far, it is unsurprising that most of the known bacterial genera have been observed in association with healthy humans. The sheer number of total bacteria found in or on humans is an amazing ~1014, which is approximately 10-fold more than the number of human cells each of us contain. Obviously, the 1–2 kg of bacteria that constitute our normal flora are responsible for neither harm nor undue health risk within their particular niches or none of us would make it to adulthood. This should inform the reader that the sheer number of microorganisms in a product is unlikely to meaningfully change the population of bacteria present at the site of administration."